Threaded nozzle clip for lamp sockets



Sept. 15, 1953 G. B. BENANDER THREADED NOZZLE CLIP FOR LAMP SOCKETSFiled Sept. 27, 1951 Fig. 9.

Inventor-1 George B. Benander',

His Att i l atented Sept. 15, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE THREADEDNOZZLE CLIP FOR LAMP SOCKETS George B. Benander, Oaklawn, R. 1.,assignor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York 3Claims. 1

This invention relates to sockets for portable electric lamps and, inparticular, to an improved device which serves the dual function ofholding socket halves together and of providing a mounting means for thesocket.

In the manufacture of portable lamps, a lamp manufacturer usuallyreceives a lamp base from one supplier and a lamp socket from anothersupplier. He then assembles the base and socket and ships the fabricatedlamp to his distributors.

In shipping the assembled lamp, the manufacturer (while having cartonsfor the lamp base) usually has to provide new cartons, since the addedsocket increases the height of the lamp to such an extent that it willnot fit in the lamp base carton.

It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide a lamp socketwhich can be so simply connected to a lamp base that the assembly can bemade by the ultimate consumer, thus allowing the manufacturer to shipthe lamp in its original carton with the resultant saving in cartoncost.

t is a further object of this invention to provide an improved devicewhich serves the dual function of holding the halves of an electricsocket together and of mounting the socket on a lamp base.

It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved securingdevice for holding parts of an electric socket in assembledrelationship.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide an improveddevice for mounting an electric lamp socket in a portable lamp base.

Further objects and advantages of this invention will become apparentand the invention will be more clearly understood from the followingdescription referring to the accompanying drawing, and the features ofnovelty which characterize this invention will be pointed out withparticularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of thisspecification.

Briefly, this invention relates to a combined securing device andmounting means which has ears for holding socket halves in assembledrelationship. The device further has a portion including either athreaded bore or other securing means whereby the clip serves the dualfunction of holding socket halves together and of providing a mountingmeans for the lamp socket.

In the drawing, Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a lamp socket includingmy improved securing device; Fig. 2 is a side elevation partly insection taken along the plane 2-2 of Fig. 1 in the direction of thearrows; Fig. 3 is a top elevation of a 4 to form a somewhat cylindricalsocket.

portion of each of the two halves of the lamp socket with a spring clipholding the halves together; Fig. 4 is a perspective view of theembodiment of my new device which is used in Figs. 1 and 2; Fig. 5 is afront elevation of a second embodiment of my improved device including amounting element or coupling; Fig. 6 is a side elevation partly insection taken along the plane 6--6 of Fig. 5 in the direction of thearrows; Fig. 7 is a bottom view of the mounting device shown in Fig. 6;Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the device used in the secondembodiment; while Fig. 9 is a front elevation of still a furtherembodiment of my improved combined securing device and mounting means.

Referring to the drawing, and particularly to Figs. 1 through 4., asocket l for a portable electric lamp is shown as comprising a pair ofmolded plastic members 2, 3 which mate along the plane The socket halves'2, 3 are held together near one end by clips 5 and at the other end bymy improved combined clip and mounting device 6. The socket is shown ashaving a switch operating knob 1 and a lamp 8; the latter being shown indotted outline. A more complete description of my lamp socket is givenin my copending application Serial No. 132,243 filed August 30, 1950.Basically, it is made of any of the phenol or urea compounds commonlyused in molding electrical devices. For example, it could be made fromalkyd compounds or any materials approved for this use by UnderwritersLaboratories, Inc.

The clips 5, which are used to hold the upper halves of the sockettogether, are more completely described in my copending applicationbearing Serial No. 252,935, filed October 24, 1951. Basically, theycomprise a U-shaped strip of resilient material having bent-in ears 9and H] which engage complementary grooves II and H2 in the socket halves2, 3 respectively. The spring action of the resilient clips 5 holds theupper end of the socket halves together.

My improved combined securing device and mounting means 6 comprises amachined nozzle which might be made of cold rolled steel or othersuitable alloy. The nozzle, through simple machining processes is formedto have a base l3, a threaded portion l4, and a pair of arms l5. After acollar [6 is extruded from base [3, the threaded portion M is formed tobe engageable with the threaded end of conventional straight pipe suchas that shown at I! and which is commonly used in lamp fabrication.

The arms I5, which are diametrically opposite,

extend radially outwardly and upwardly from the base I3, and they areprovided with hooked ends 18 and I9 which are engageable with notches20, 2| in casing halves 2, 3 respectively. The arms l5 preferably aremade of a rigid metal such that they will maintain any position to whichthey are moved; that is, when the arms are bent into the notches 20, 2!respectively, the hooked ends l8, [9 will stay in engagement with thenotches to hold the socket halves 2, 3 together.

In this connection it will be noted that the hooked ends I8 and [9 arereversely bent with respect to arms :5, extending inwardly at a lowangle to the plane of the arms and that notches and 2| are of a width attheir outer ends somewhat larger than the width of the hooked ends andtaper inwardly to a width somewhat less than that of the hooked ends, itbeing understood that by the width of the hooked ends is meant thevertical distance'between the top of a hooked end and the lower inneredge of a hooked end; and arms it are of a length with respect to thedistance between the bottom wall of lamp socket members 2 and 3 which isflat and notches 20 and 21 such that when the arms are bent inwardly tobring the hooked ends into the notches, such ends will be wedged betweenthe top and bottom walls of the notches as shown clearly in Fig. 2 tobring the two halves of the lamp socket tightly together and draw basel3 tightly up into engagement with the bottom wall of socket members 2and 3.

With such a structure, a molded socket which is provided with notches2t, 2! is placed in engagement with my improved clip 8 whereupon itsarms [5 are bent in against the sides of the portions 2, 3 so that thehooked ends i8, is are wedged in the notches 2G, 2|. This structureprovides for holding the socket halves together and for preventing axialmovement of the scouring device 6 relative to the lamp socket l.

With such a mounting means provided for a lamp socket, it is a simplematter to insert a suitable piece of straight pipe through the lam baseto be engageable with my securing device 5, therby to hold the lamp andlamp socket in assembled relation.

The second modification of this invention is shown in Figs. 5, 6, 7 and8 wherein a lamp socket l and the clips 5 are identical to those shownin Figs. 1 through 4. In this embodiment, however, my improved combinedsecuring device and mounting means 22 does not have the threaded portionHi as shown in Fig. 2. Instead, a separate collar or coupling 23 isprovided and made of some molded plastic which is similar to that usedfor the lamp socket, and the lamp socket is then secured to a lamp basei by threading the coupling 23 onto it. In order to secure the lampsocket l to the coupling 23, arms 25 (similar to arms iii of Fig. l) ofmounting device 22 are secured to the lamp socket l by engaging thenotches 2%, 2| just as shown in Figs. 1 through 4. In the device 22,however, the base portion '22 includes a plurality of radial fingers 2'!which are spaced somewhat uniformly about the periphery. The fingers 21are deflected downwardly from the-plane of the base so that they canpass through a bore 28 in the collar 23. After the fingers 2? have beenpassed through the bore 28, they are upset against the periphery of thebore 23 to hold my improved mounting device 22 to the collar 23.

Before inserting collar 23 on the lamp socket l,

however, the ears 25 must be installed on the lamp socket as describedfor the arms l5 of Figs. 1 through 4; then, when coupling 23 is securedto mounting device 22 by means of bending the fingers 2! into engagementwith the periphery of bore 28, the coupling serves the decorativefunction of covering the arms '25 while preventing axial movementbetween the socket and mounting device.

A pair of notches 29 is cut in the periphery of the bore 28to permit thearms 25 to extend upward into engagement with the socket 5. By means ofthe interengagement between the arms and notches 29, the coupling 23 isprevented from being rotated about the axis of socket I.

In assembling a lamp, the ultimate consumer simply screws coupling 23onto a threaded portion 30 of lamp base 24 to fabricate a completedlamp.

In a still further embodiment of my invention, a combined securingdevice and mounting means is provided by molding a threaded end 3: ontothe bottom of lamp socket l as shown in Fig. 9. A metal ring or ferrule32, threaded to engage threaded portion 35, is then screwed onto thelamp socket l whereby the socket ha. es are held together by thethreaded ring 32. Thus a mounting device is provided whereby thethreaded ring can be cemented onto a porcelain base or screwed into acomplementary threaded nozzle.

In each of the embodiments shown, the lamp socket i may be held togetherby the combined use of clips 5 and one of the devices 6, 2'2, or 32.However, if it is necessary, the socket halves be further held togetherby means of a screw passing through the two halves of the socket 2, 3.

Modifications of this invention will occur to those skilled in the artaudit is desired to be understood, therefore, that this invention is notintended to be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, butrather it is intended to cover all modifications which are within thetrue spirit and scope of this invention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is:

1. In a lamp socket, a housing sp t dinally to provide housing halvesand means for fastening together the housing halves at their lower endsforming a mounting means for the lamp socket comprising walls whichdefine in opposed outer sides of the halves opposite outwardlyfacingnotches, the top and bottom walls of which taper inwardly withrespect each other whereby the notches in a vertical direction are widerat their outer ends than at their inner ends, and a combined securingdevice and mounting means having a base which against the bottom surfaceof the housing halves, means forming a part of the base to which asupporting member may be attached for supporting the lamp socket, and arintegral with the base which extend up along the side of the sockethousing and have inwardly turned downwardly sloping hooked endspositioned in notches, said arms being ofa length and said hook endshaving a width such that when the hooked ends are pushed into thenotches, they are wedged between the top and bottom tapered walls of thenotches and draw the base up into tight engagement with the bottomsurface of the housing halves.

2. A lamp socket structure as defined by claim 1 wherein the meansforming a part of the base to which a supporting member may be attachedGEORGE 1B. BENANDER.

References Cited in the fi1e of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date Nero Oct. 14, 1930 Grant May 11, 1937 Benander Sept. 11, 1951

